Happy Heart Sutra and Magic Competition Tutoring

Happy Heart Sutra and Magic Competition Tutoring

The next morning.

Ever since breaking through the Heavenly Cycle Qi Gathering Method to Level 10 last night and purchasing the Desolate Ox Soul-Suppressing Heart Sutra to begin practicing it...

Having been constantly driven by Ritual Power to study, cultivate, and work—and gradually growing accustomed to it—Zhang Yu found the Desolate Ox Soul-Suppressing Heart Sutra incomparably suited to him. His progress was faster and fiercer than he had imagined.

Especially as the Desolate Ox Soul-Suppressing Heart Sutra leveled up again and again, Zhang Yu became increasingly able to endure the tedium, monotony, and loneliness of cultivating a heart sutra.

Other than triggering Ritual Power to force himself onward, he scarcely paused at all, making a valiant and vigorous advance along the cultivation path of the Desolate Ox Soul-Suppressing Heart Sutra.

When dawn was just beginning to break, Zhang Yu slowly opened his eyes. His Desolate Ox Soul-Suppressing Heart Sutra had already risen to Level 7 (15/21).

Raising this heart sutra to such a level in a single night sometimes made even Zhang Yu afraid of his own talent.

Besides This, his Dao Heart had also made great progress. In particular, Zhang Yu saw new data on the Feather Scroll: Dao Heart Level 2 (1%).

"Could it be that after cultivating the Desolate Ox Soul-Suppressing Heart Sutra, my grasp of the Dao Heart has become more precise, allowing me to sense its specific progress?"

Zhang Yu shook his head. He still knew far too little about the Feather Scroll.

After getting up and brushing his teeth and washing his face, Zhang Yu continued silently practicing his heart sutra on the way to school, seizing every spare moment.

Judging by the breakneck speed at which he was advancing through the Desolate Ox Soul-Suppressing Heart Sutra, he felt that he should be able to push it to Level 10 today.

Songyang High School.

During the break between classes.

As Zhang Yu cultivated his heart sutra, he heard footsteps drawing closer and closer, and his brow furrowed slightly.

A tall, shaved-headed boy walked up to him and asked, "Zhang Yu, sorry to disturb you."

"Could I borrow yesterday's math test paper to take a look?"

After waiting for a while and seeing that Zhang Yu still did not answer, the boy smiled nonchalantly. "Sorry, looks like I disturbed you."

"Go ahead and cultivate. I'll come find you later."

But after turning around, a trace of gloom flashed through the boy's eyes.

Zhang Yu's complete focus on cultivation, and his utter refusal to acknowledge him, made him feel disrespected.

He thought darkly, Heh, as expected of third in the grade. What arrogance. A player in the 530-point range like me probably doesn't even count as a person to him, right?

On the other side, listening to the other boy's retreating footsteps, Zhang Yu felt relieved that he had finally left.

"Is Liang Qin being a little too familiar?"

Liang Qin was the boy who had just asked Zhang Yu to borrow his math test paper.

Ever since Zhang Yu's Monthly Exam results came out, students had often approached him, probing for the secret behind his rapid improvement in grades.

But most only came once or twice before giving up. In particular, Zhang Yu spent nearly every break diligently cultivating. Seeing that he ignored people, and as the buzz over the Monthly Exam gradually faded, fewer and fewer students came to join the excitement.

Only Liang Qin came looking for him after almost every class.

And not just after class.

During Martial Arts Class, Liang Qin would bring him water.

After P.E. class, he would bring Zhang Yu a towel to wipe his sweat.

When eating in the cafeteria, he would try to reserve a seat for Zhang Yu in advance.

And whenever he spoke, he always made a habit of praising Zhang Yu to the skies.

Like a diligent little bee, he buzzed around Zhang Yu from time to time.

At first, Zhang Yu had thought the guy was pretty decent.

But after a few days, he found Liang Qin increasingly irritating.

Especially since Liang Qin kept coming over during breaks, disrupting his cultivation.

And while flattering him, Liang Qin was always trying to pry sideways at the secret of his improved grades, which Zhang Yu found rather boring.

So over the past two days, Zhang Yu had gradually stopped paying attention to him, hoping the other boy would retreat in the face of difficulty.

Although this seemed to have stirred up some resentment in Liang Qin, Zhang Yu had no other choice.

In the blink of an eye, it was nearly time for school to end.

During self-study, Zhang Yu's body trembled slightly. He felt as though a stream of sweet dew had surged from the depths of his Sea of Consciousness, nourishing his entire body and filling him with incomparable delight.

At the same time, a low roar echoed from the Intent Guarding Diagram in his mind. The old ox Zhang Yu had outlined was not only lifelike now, but had raised its horns toward the sky and was letting out a low bellow, as if it had truly come alive.

Desolate Ox Soul-Suppressing Heart Sutra Level 10

As this heart sutra rose to Level 10, Zhang Yu felt an incomparably profound sense of contentment and happiness.

Whenever he thought of how his strength would continue to steadily improve, and of how one cultivation technique after another would be pushed to Level 10 by his own hand, Zhang Yu was filled with anticipation, and the happiness born from that anticipation kept welling up within him.

"So this is the effect of reaching Level 10 in the Desolate Ox Soul-Suppressing Heart Sutra?"

"As long as one has anticipation for the future, then even tedious, grueling cultivation, even endless hardship, can bring happiness and fulfillment."

Zhang Yu felt that this heart sutra became more interesting the more he practiced it. A cultivation technique that allowed people to feel happiness amid bitter cultivation—wouldn't that reduce the suffering of cultivation and improve its efficiency? Why had so many people left bad reviews?

Unless many people who had cultivated this heart sutra to Level 10 could no longer feel happiness, because their lives no longer held any anticipation for the future?

Thinking of the current state of Kunxu First Layer, Zhang Yu shook his head helplessly. "The Desolate Ox Soul-Suppressing Heart Sutra is a good cultivation technique."

"But no matter how good a cultivation technique is, it is only a cultivation technique. What the future becomes ultimately depends on people."

Just as Zhang Yu was sighing inwardly, a girl's voice called out, "Yu Zi?"

Bai Zhenzhen looked at Zhang Yu's face, so full of contentment and happiness, swept her gaze up and down him, then asked suspiciously, "Yu Zi, you didn't overflow in the classroom, did you?"

Zhang Yu abruptly opened his eyes. Looking at Bai Zhenzhen's disgusted face, he said speechlessly, "Sigh, I was just lamenting the beauty of cultivation and comprehending the helplessness of the world. Then you, crude person that you are, opened your mouth and shattered the entire mood."

Bai Zhenzhen could not be bothered with whatever beauty or helplessness Zhang Yu was talking about. She grabbed him and dragged him toward the classroom door.

"Stop talking nonsense. Did you forget we're attending Magic Competition tutoring after school today? We already paid 3,000 yuan."

After Zhang Yu's Magical Power had entered the top ten in the grade last month, he and Bai Zhenzhen had both been selected for the first-year team participating in the Magical Power Competition.

But everything tested in the first-year Magical Power Competition was something Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen had never learned at school, far beyond the content taught in class.

So Teacher Yan, who taught Magical Power class, had organized tutoring sessions to teach them the Magic Competition events.

Inside the classroom.

Aside from Teacher Yan, who had her hair pinned up and wore black-rimmed glasses, only Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen had shown up.

Teacher Yan explained, "Other than you two, everyone else has private tutors and their own tutoring schedules, so they won't be attending."

Zhang Yu thought to himself, Doesn't that mean that among the top ten in Magical Power, only the two of us are poor?

Bai Zhenzhen clenched her fists tightly and thought, So this is the kind of tutoring session where attending lowers your campus reputation.

A blazing fighting spirit flashed through Teacher Yan's eyes as she thought, Those rich kids are giving me no face at all. They trust private tutors over me?

Those private tutors are all smooth talkers who only know how to swindle money. How could they compare to my thirty years of solid teaching experience at a Key High School?

Only two out of ten came. Isn't this drastically lowering my campus reputation?

Fine if they don't come, but they won't even pay the tutoring fee?

If the students from Class 2 or Class 3 had dared to do this, Teacher Yan would definitely have called their parents fiercely and summoned every last one of them to school, letting them know the consequences of looking down on a Magical Power teacher.

But when she thought of the parents of those eight Demonstration Class students...

Well, their parents were so busy with work. As teachers, they should be more understanding.

She looked at Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen and thought, You two poor kids had better do me proud. Surpass those eight brats thoroughly, so they'll obediently come to tutoring from now on.

Though all sorts of thoughts flashed through her mind, Teacher Yan remained expressionless on the surface and slowly said, "What the Magic Competition tests is completely different from what you usually learn. Total Magical Power is only the foundation. The key lies in controlling Magical Power..."

She projected an Energy Circulation Diagram of the human body and began explaining with great effort. "The Magical Power currently within your bodies is in its most basic form."

"By controlling the flow and routes of Magical Power, you can alter its form."

"For example, one advanced direction is Sword Qi, palm power, and other forms intended for Martial Dao use..."

"Taking it a step further, it can trigger all sorts of phenomena—heating, low temperatures, generating electricity, and more..."

As she explained, she extended a finger. A sharp fluctuation first rose from her fingertip, easily slicing through a sheet of paper before her.

A moment later, her fingertip reddened slightly, illuminating a tiny flame.

"This is the most basic form transformation of Magical Power."

"Of course, basic form transformations rely on fundamentals—on one's control over Magical Power—and their power is extremely limited."

"To go truly further, to achieve something with practical value, one needs the special Magical Power formed from all kinds of extraordinary techniques and ultimate arts..."

Listening to Teacher Yan's explanation, Zhang Yu suddenly recalled the Yin-Cold Palm Power that He Dayou had used against him during the Monthly Exam practical battle.

He guessed that was probably special Magical Power formed from some kind of cultivation technique.

At the podium, Teacher Yan projected an animated diagram of energy circulation and said to the two of them, "This is the simplest Sword Qi Conversion Path. It can transform Magical Power into a thread of sharp Sword Qi."

"Follow what I just taught you and try to see whether you can do it."

Bai Zhenzhen stared at the animated energy circulation diagram for a while, then soon felt a little dizzy.

"This energy circulation route is way too complicated!"

Then she tried it herself, only to be left speechless.

Magical Power looped and twisted through her left arm, yet she could never turn it into even a trace of sharp energy.

This was really the simplest Sword Qi Conversion Path?

This was competition difficulty?

She felt as though she had only just learned addition, and then the teacher had handed her a two-variable linear equation and told her to solve it.

Just then, Zhang Yu called out beside her ear.

"A-Zhen, come take a look!"

Bai Zhenzhen turned around and saw Zhang Yu tapping lightly across his notebook with his fingertip, directly cutting out a two-variable linear equation.

Yu Zi, that unfamiliar face of yours makes me sick.

(End of Chapter)